Bali Earthquake?!

I think my alarm clock should start taking tips from nature. Maybe if it would physically shake me awake, perhaps then I couldn't get away with hitting the snooze button.

I've been up since 6:50 AM though.

Mainly because mother nature was all "seriously, you need to wake up now, you lazy bum." Thanks, mother. I just wanted 5 more minutes.

Jokes aside, the epicenter was the island next to Bali, where I am now. Blue dot is where I am, and the red dot is where the strongest part was.

When everything was shaking, all these thoughts started racing through my head.

Like about back in 2010 when there was the big earthquake in Haiti. My grandma was there on a mission trip, and she said the house to the left of her totally collapsed, and so did the house to the right, but her house was totally unshaken.

Then I thought about how the earthquake's theme song should be...

"Shaky" by Daddy Yankee.

And then I thought about hiding under the bed, but I don't know if that's proper earthquake etiquette or not.

And then it was over.

Even though the epicenter was on the next island, it was strong over here, too!

Here's a picture that someone posted from the town next to the one I'm staying in:

Everyone I know here was safe, but I am really sad because 10 people died.

My heart goes out to all of those families who lost someone.

It's my second reminder within just a couple of days that life can be more fragile than it seems. It's the second reminder because I came VERY close to being run over by a motorbike a couple of days ago. Maybe I'll tell that story tomorrow.

It's really easy to not think about things like dying. Especially when you're young. But it's all been a reminder about this cool story I read or heard somewhere once.

A teacher assigned his/her students to write their own obituary for class. It seemed like kind of a morbid assignment...

...I'm sure some kids were like "what the heck?"

But the assignment wasn't just some sick joke.

The point was to get the students to think about living their lives with a purpose and helping them find direction.

Imagine this...

You're falsely reported dead by mistake (because somebody isn't that great at their job) and you don't know about it.

Then you see your obituary online somehow, and it's NOT what you thought it would be at all. You don't see any of the accomplishments on there that you were going to achieve. And you didn't help the people you said you were going to help.

You just died the queen or king of selfies and duck faces or something (major exaggeration). But, luckily for you, you're still alive. It was all just a mistake. You can change it.

So... if you could write your own obituary, what would it look like?

It's kind of a wake-up call, right? Are you happy with the legacy you're leaving behind? Are you happy with the direction your life is headed?

It's easy to start drifting sometimes and because you feel like you have all the time in the world. But you don't. I was reminded of that twice in just a couple of days.

It's good to have the reminder once in a while.